Elaine Paige

Elaine Jill Paige OBE née Bickerstaff born 5 March 1948 is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre Raised in Barnet Hertfordshire Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964 at the age of 16 Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut Following a number of roles over the next decade Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webbers Evita in 1978 which brought her to the attention of the broader public For this role she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with Memory a song from the show In 1985 Paige released I Know Him So Well with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess which remains the biggestselling record by a female duo She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also coproduced Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996 playing the lead role of Norma Desmond to critical acclaim She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001 and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone She has also worked sporadically in television In addition to being nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards Paige has won many other awards for her theatre roles and has been called the First Lady of British Musical Theatre due to her skill and longevity She has released 22 solo albums of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multiplatinum Paige is also featured on seven cast albums and has sung in concerts across the world Since 2004 she has hosted her own show on BBC Radio 2 called Elaine Paige on Sunday In 2014 Paige celebrated her 50 years in show business Paige announced on her official website a Farewell concert tour and a new careerspanning album The Ultimate Collection to mark this milestone in her career Outside of her work in musical theatre Paige is a vicepresident of The Childrens Trust a UK charity for children with brain injury Elaine Jill Bickerstaff was born and raised in Barnet Hertfordshire where her father Eric worked as an estate agent and her mother Irene was a milliner Her mother had been a singer in her youth and her father was an amateur drummer Paige stands at just under 5 feet 15 m tall which she says has caused her to lose out on leading roles Her original ambition was to become a professional tennis player at which point her headmistress pointed out to her theyd never see you over the net but Paige continued to play tennis and has referred to the sport as one of her passions Source Article Elaine Paige from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30